The Skopje district court on Tuesday sentenced three Macedonian army officers and a businessman to a total of 13 years' imprisonment over illegal arms shipment to neighboring Bulgaria.

The former head of the logistics sector and the sector's advisor with the Macedonian Defense Ministry were sentenced to four years' imprisonment each. A high-ranking officer on the General Staff was jailed for three years, while an alleged business associate got two years in prison.

Another four defendants, all army officers, received three-years uspended sentence each, Makfax, Macedonia's independent news agency, reported from Skopje.

Macedonian police seized three trucks of weapons heading for Bulgaria last December. It was claimed at first they were decommissioned by the Macedonian army and shipped to a scrap metal yard in Bulgaria. Police later found 300 new German-made MG-3 machine guns among the weapons.